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(No Model.)

E. C. G., THOMAS.

BREAKWATBR.

Patented Aug. 21, 1883.

FIC..|

FIGA

UNITED STATES f PATENT OFFICE.

, EDWARD onora: GREENWAY THOMAS, or nPsoM, ooUNTY or sunnnv,

- ENGLAND. 1

BREAKWATER.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 283,683, dated August 21, 1883.

Application tiled February 24, 1BE3. (No model.) Patented in England August 16, 1881, No,3,556.

or shores, Whether they are flxed or movable,

are usually so constructed as to offer absolute resistance to the force of the waves, breaking them up or destroying or lessening their force, so that it is Wholly or partially expended on the breakwater itself, leaving the Water Within the brealrwater comparatively calm.

The object of 'thisinvention is so to construct and arrange a breakwater as to utilize the momentum ofthe waves themselves forv neutralizing their-destruetive energy by directing them against each other, thus causing f .them to be deprived of theirlmomentum, and

rendering them powerless to destroy or injure the protected harbor or shore. For this pur-V pose I place across the course of the Waves a number of Wedge-shapedbodies, which may be either fixed or floating, arranged with their edges presented toward the Waves, so as todivide them to right and left, 'like the stem of a vessel. The sides of each Wedge-shaped body are formed in such a `Way that the Wave deiiected from the side of one of them is made to meet and directly oppose that deflected fromV the next, so that these opposing forces destroy or neutralize each other, and the Water then passes on in a comparatively calm and innocuous condition. I usually employ floating bnoys or pontons of the desired form, ballasted to such immersion that they present above the `surface a certain extent of free board. These bnoys are moored in such positions that the Water deilected from the Aone meets that deiiected from the next, as above described. In cases Where it is convenient or desirable to have a fixed brealcwater, piers or fixed structures of the required form are employed instead of buoys.

rllhe accompanying drawings show modes of elevation, and Fig. 2 is a horizontal section, of y part of afloating breakwater. Figs. 3 and5 are respectively an elevation and aplan of stationary caissons, forming a solid resistance, unyielding to the force of Waves; and Fig.v 4 is a vertical section onthe line a a of Fig. 5. Figs. 6 and 7 are plans of other forms that might be used instead of those described.

A A A A, Figs. l and 2, are the buoys, secured to the bottom C C by mooring-chainssuch asare indicated by the dotted lines E E E E-or otherwise. The buoys are rectangular in vertical section, but triangular or Wedgeshaped in plan or horizontal section, with curved sides, concavel toward the sea. The directions in which the Wave forces act on the sides of the buoys are indicated by the arrows H H H. The two sets of forces H H' H, deflected from the sides of adjacent buoys, meet and are compounded into a single force, K,

Ihe caissons represented in Figs. 3 and 5 Y may b e made of a casing of iron plate iilled with concrete, rough stone, rubble, or any heavy and inexpensive material, and-sunk on a beveled bed at the bottom. G is the outside skin or casing, and F the filling in, C C being the bed on which it rests.

. It is obvious that the shapes and proportions of the obstructing bodies might other- Wise be varied, so long as their sides, which receive the impact ofthe Waves, are inclined, so as to deflect the water from each toward the other, in order that the two deflected bodies of Water may meet, having directions more or less opposed to each other.

Although in what precedes I have spoken.

rents.

Having thus described the nature of my in- Vention and the best means I-knoW of carrying itinto practical operation7 I claim- Intestinuony whereof I have signed my naine Io to this.specification7 in the presence of two sub-- scribing Witnesses7 this 2d day of February,

EDWARD CROFT GREENWAY THOMAS.

Vitnesses:

' OLIVER IsMAY,

JNO. P. M. MILLARD. 

